This Privacy Policy was last updated: 1st June 2025
Use of the website, www.kent-ent.com constitutes a legal agreement to the terms within this policy and your acceptance of this policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of the website. If you do not agree with the terms below, you are advised not to use the website.
This policy may change from time to time and you should check this page before using the website to ensure that you are aware of and accept any changes.
Policy Statement
The website www.kent-ent.com is designed to promote the services of Consultant Ear Nose and Throat Surgeons Robert Hone, Ali Al-lami, Vikram Dhar, Alistair Balfour and Henry Sharp. We understand that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used and shared online. This privacy policy sets out how www.kent-ent.com collects and processes personal data.
Where applicable terms used in this policy shall have the meanings given by the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal data is safeguarded and kept in accordance with the law.
By providing us with your data, you warrant that you are over 13 years of age.
About Us
Our office address is Victoria Court, 17-21 Ashford Road, Maidstone, ME14 5DA.
Where we manage personal data, we identify as a Data Controller and recognise and act on our obligations under applicable data protection laws. For any issues relating to data protection the person responsible is Rebecca Semmens.
Personal Data We Collect
Information that you provide to us is retained and processed in accordance with UK data protection legislation.
This includes data given to us from the following:
Communications – We collect personal data when users submit an online Patient Referral Form. This collects your name, date of birth, address, email and contact number as well as GP details and your description of the problem you wish to enquire about. We will use this information to contact you and provide details of our services, make bookings, confirm bookings and deal with general company enquiries. Data is held on the grounds of being legitimate to our business interests.
We also collect personal data when our online GP Referral Form is submitted and this includes data relating to: GP’s name, GP’s contact telephone number, patient’s name, date of birth, contact email and telephone number.
We retain copies of emails sent to us on our servers which are hosted by Prostack Hosting. For details of how your data is handled by this third party you should refer to their Privacy Policy. Your personal data will be held by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy and will be on the basis of being legitimate to our business interests.
Emails sent to us, including any attachments, may be monitored and blocked if the contents are considered a potential threat to the business or our systems or if deemed illegal.
Phone calls to us may be recorded and any data relating to the call may be retained by us. The data will be held on the basis of being for our legitimate business needs or in order to fulfil our contractual obligations if you are a client of ours. Calls may be tracked and data anonymized for analytical purposes.
Use of the website – When you visit the website, www.kent-ent.com we will log your Internet Protocol (IP) address, and the type of web browser used. This is not used to identify you as an individual user by us and we will not collect any personal data until you specifically provide this to us. Anonymised data may be used and share for analytical purposes (see Cookie Policy).
Testimonials – We may ask clients for a testimonial in relation to our services or treatments and this may be used on our website. Personal data that identifies an individual will not be published online or in any printed material.
Special Categories Of Data
Some of the information you provide to us may be considered as special categories of data and this includes any information provided in relation to: ethnic or racial origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual life or criminal record. We take additional measures to ensure that all such data is processed securely and safeguarded at all times.
Children
We do not market this website at those under 18 years old. Consistent with the GDPR we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 16 years old.
We will take appropriate steps to delete any personal data of individuals less than 16 years of age that has been collected on our website upon learning of the existence of such data.
Information We Get From Other Sources
From time to time, we may need to obtain information from third parties about you. This will only apply where it is necessary to provide our services and as permitted by law.
How Do We Use Your Data
We may use the information we collect from you in the following ways:
Users contacting this website and / or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal data is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use.
Disclosure
We don’t share, sell, or distribute your data to third parties, except as contractually agreed with you or as provided in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose your personal data if we are required to do so by law, in connection with any legal proceedings, and in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights, or if otherwise legally permitted.
Other Healthcare Professionals And staff
Personal data submitted via www.kent-ent.com, provided by telephone or in-person may be shared with healthcare consultants working with Kent & Sussex ENT who also provide treatments at the practice. All such information is treated as confidential and appropriate steps taken to ensure it is appropriately safeguarded.
Administrative staff may only access personal data if it is required for their role and are also under a duty to maintain confidentiality.
Data Processors
We may use Data Processors who act on our instruction in relation to the management of your data and they must adhere to all data protection laws and regulations. We will ensure that any Data Processors used only operate on our written instructions and comply with their obligations under the GDPR. You will be informed of any other Data Controllers who have access to your data and who may determine processing activities separately to us, or as a Joint Data Controller.
Marketing
We will only send you emails about our services with your express consent. You have the option not to give consent and to withdraw consent at any time. You may withdraw your consent for us to contact you by emailing info@kent-ent.com Non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to third parties for marketing, advertising or other uses.
External Links
Users of the website are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking on any external web links. Clicking an external link will take the user away from our website. Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy. You encourage you to read the website privacy policy for any third party you click on to.
www.kent-ent.com cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website and users click on external links at their own risk. www.kent-ent.com and its owner cannot be held liable for any damages, or the consequences of visiting any external links.
Payment Processing
This website does not process payments. Payments handled on our premises shall comply with the standard procedures and requirements as laid down by law to ensure that personal data is kept secure.
Data Retention
We keep your personal data in accordance with our Data Retention Policy which reflects our needs to provide services to you as contracted and also as required to meet legal, statutory and regulatory obligations. The need to hold information is regularly reviewed and data will be disposed of when no longer required.
Personal data from enquiry forms submitted to us shall be kept for a period of 12 months from when the enquiry is closed.
Data Security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. Personal data is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems and are required to keep such information confidential.
We take appropriate steps to ensure a safe processing of personal data, however, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted through our website or by email. Any transmission is at your own risk.
Data Storage
Our website is hosted by an external hosting company. Any information that you supply to us may be stored and processed by their servers. Your data may be transferred in accordance with the relevant data protection law.
Rights Of Data Subjects
We recognise a data subjects rights and will uphold these in accordance with data protection law. You should note that in some cases, we may limit or restrict the enforcement of these rights due to our legal or regulatory obligations.
You are entitled to see the information held about you and you may ask us about any of the following:
Subject Access requests
Data subjects (i.e. individuals) have the right to access personal data that is held by us by submitting a subject access request (SAR)]. We will endeavour to respond quickly to any such requests, which legally require us to respond within one month of receiving the request and necessary information. A subject access request can be made by emailing info@kent-ent.com
Right To Rectification
Data subjects have the right to request that we amend or change personal data that is inaccurate or incorrect.
Right to Erasure
Data subjects have the right to ask us to delete personal data from our systems without giving any reason and at any time. We will act on any such request without delay. This right is not absolute and personal data may be retained for us where there is a lawful reason for us to do so and this takes precedence over the right of erasure.
Right To Restrict Processing
Data subjects have the right to rectification or erasure of personal data in the following circumstances:
Right To Data Portability
Data subjects have the right to obtain and request the transfer of their data to different service providers.
Right To Object
Data subjects have the right to object to the processing of data at any time based on their particular situation. This includes objecting to profiling unless it is in the ‘public interest’ or exercised lawfully by an official authority. We will only process data under lawful grounds.
Right Not To Be Subject To Decisions Based On Automated Processing
We do not use any automated processing that results in any automated decision based on a data subject’s personal data.
Using Your Rights
If you wish to invoke any of these rights, you should contact the person responsible for data protection by emailing us at info@kent-ent.com
Data Breaches
We will report any unlawful breach of data as required by the GDPR within 72 hours of the breach occurring, if it is considered that there is an actual, or possibility, that data within our control including the control of our data processors, has been compromised. If the breach is classified as ‘high risk’ we will notify all data subjects concerned using an appropriate means of communication. We will report any relevant breaches to the ICO, see below.
